A number of you have asked about the “Jars” in the studio. These are filled with brewing herbal liniments called “Dit Da Jow” (hit and Fall Wine). These liniments are very good at promoting qi and blood flow circulation, and excel at treating sports injuries. Herbal liniments are traditionally used for martial arts injuries, such as bruises, contusions, strains, and sprains and generally contain herbs that stop pain, reduce inflammation, and break up local stagnation of qi and blood. If you’ve suffer with bruising at the early stages of training or are working your wall bag hard, use it to aid recovery. It’s available to purchase at the studio so just ask.

Location: Lincoln kung Fu Academy

(Muk Yun Jong Fat) Workshop covering the training theory and first 4 Sections of the Wooden Man forms movements and applications.

Saturday 26th May 12 – 3.30pm.

£25 members/£45 Non members:

12 places available for this one so book early.

Most of you have laid good basic foundations in Qin Na so we’ll be concentrating on the knife and gun disarms for the next month or two before moving onto more complicated techniques, just remember to take your time when learning to apply the actions, leverage is a powerful thing, and bones and joints are very fragile, look at the exercises as a good way to stretch each other and you’ll be training safe.

Sifu

…..MARCH WORKSHOP NOW FULLY BOOKED….

A workshop covering the “Gates Theory, Perimeter Defence, Common entry moves and Hidden striking tools”will be held at the studio on the 10th March. This will be covering many  training strategies in un-armed combat.Most of the content is outside of the normal training timetable so I would encourage all students to attend. If you would like to attend email me with your details and payment before the 29th Feb. Limited places. There will be a handout covering all the points of the day available after the event.

Location: The Lincoln Kung Fu Academy

Time: 12 – 3.30pm

Saturday 10th March 2012.

Price: £20 Members: £35 Non Members.

How do you train striking power in Wing Chun?

The first point of training is usually the wall bag. This piece of training equipment essentially represents the strongest, most grounded opponent you will ever meet. In Wing Chun we learn to drive all our body power into the wall Bag, which soaks up the impact force without yielding, this in turn puts stress on the joints of the body and over time strengthens them, it also conditions the striking surface of the hands. From extensive wall bag training, the Wing Chun practitioner develops very strong punching power and body structure.

Further training for striking power and techniques comes from pad and bag work and of course we have the wooden man which is unique to the Wing Chun system in terms of its use, the Jong being representative of a very strong and rooted opponent. The Jong teaches us correct footwork and positioning with co-ordinated body structure and bridging power. Often Wing Chun punching is mis-understood, and applied more like a hammer blow, with power being thrown from the shoulder, which limits its effectiveness and impact power. The (Chung Choi) or Thrusting punch should always be thrown straight outwards and upwards with the elbow relaxed and pointing to the floor,  legs supporting the elbow.  When it connects, its power and feel is very different to a punch thrown from the shoulder. The wing chun punch feels like being hit by a battering ram. Even from an inch away, I’ve not met many people that wanted it demonstrated on them twice. If you practice Wing Chun, get yourself a wall bag and train it every day. Practice at least 500 strikes per day and use a good liniment rub to aid recovery in the arms and hands. If you feel sore, allow your hands to recover before further practice. Build the power in your wrists, elbows, knees and ankles slowly. Rushing it will only cause un-necessary injury and delay progress.

Sifu J

A question often asked is “why bother training sticking hands, isn’t it very unrealistic”? well, watch any fight and one consistency is in the fighters arms making contact. This contact is what we call “Bridging” and from this bridging, we learn how to feel the movement and intent of our opponent and deflect, neutralise and counter our opponents actions, this is the skill ‘Chi Sao” imparts.

Someone with no experience of Chi Sao is always totally overwhelmed when they lock arms with a skilled practitioner as they cannot get their arms free to strike, this includes experienced fighters and martial artists alike. The Chi Sao skill is particularly relevant when dealing with strikers as confidence in moving forward, a shutting the striker down is constantly re-enforced when training it.

The clinch is where most fights get to, and where Wing Chun skill excels, the practice of sticking hands is highly enjoyable when done correctly, being exercise in perfection of our defensive and offensive actions,that load the body structure and muscles in the correct way, developing physical strength, power and mental intent.

Great new resource launched for all Wing Chun practitioners. Check out the website, video gallery is great and hopefully will be added to. Shows some of the most respected “Masters” of the system doing their interpretations of the Wing Chun forms. You’ll notice they are all slightly different! Understand those differences, and your skills grow further. Follow the maxims of the system and you will eventually know Wing Chun.

I also downloaded the “Wing Chun Masters” app to have a look at. It’s pretty basic and some of the techniques are not the way I would recommend them done but for our beginners, it’s definately worth a look. only £3.99. If you want to check it out on my phone just ask! It has a version of the dummy form on there also.

There is also an app for this site. Download it and you can then download the magazine to your phone, ipad etc. The magazine itself has movie segments within the pages of the articles featured in the magazine, click the movie segment and you are treated to a short tutorial. This is a fantastic feature, wish this had been around when I was first learning, its truly helpful. Thanks to El for the heads up on this one!

Key Elements for successful practice of the first form.

Keep the body structure and energy connected.

Remain relaxed and focus energy in the Mai Jarn.

Perform the first section slowly and develop the Yi.

Perform the (Gum/Soh) sao set with long energy.

Once the deflecting and striking angles are well trained and accurate, perform the final actions in the form with Fa Ging.

Practice it daily!!!

Jason Bradbury’s challenge was to learn Wing Chun Kung Fu during 8 weeks of training, at the end of which, culminated in a fight with a kick boxer with 30 years experience. It was a great effort, catch the repeats on channel five!

Super grip, ultra light, these training shoes are perfect for what we do, improving stance, footwork and the feel for the floor. LIghtweight and durable, they are perfect for fast kicking techniques also, if you haven’t already, do yourself a favour and order yourself a pair today. For £18.00 they are seriously good indoor training shoes!